Page:The Bible of Nature, and Substance of Virtue.djvu/30

 Thee, now I sing of Nature, I must choose A patron to my verse, be thou my muse; And make my lines, whilst I to Memmius write, Thy choice, thy most deserving favorite: Inspire my breast with an unusual flame, Sprightly as his wit, immortal as his fame. Let war's tumultuous noise and labors cease, Let earth and sea enjoy a solid peace. For 'midst rough wars how can verse smoothly flow, Or 'midst such storms the learned laurel grow? I treat of things abstruse, the deity, The vast and steady motions of the sky; The rise of things, how curious Nature joins The various seed, and in one mass combines The jarring principles: what new supplies Bring nourishment and strength: how she unties The Gordian knot, and the poor compound dies: Of what she makes, to what she breaks the frame, Call'd seeds or principles; though either name We use promiscuously, the thing's the same. For whatsoe'ers divine, must live in peace, In undisturb'd and everlasting ease: Long time men lay opprest with slavish fear, Religion's tyranny did domineer, Which being plac'd in heaven look'd proudly down, And frighted abject spirits with her frown. At length a mighty one of Greece began T' assert the natural liberty of man, By senseless terrors and vain fancies led To slavery; straight the conquer'd Phantoms fled. Not the fam'd stories of the deity, Not all the thunder of the threatening sky Could stop his rising soul; through all he past The strongest bounds that powerful Nature cast; His vigorous and active mind was hurl'd Beyond the flaming limits of this world Into the mighty space, and there did see How things begin, what can, what cannot be; How all must die, all yield to fatal force, What steady limits bound their natural course: He saw all this, and brought it back to us